Chinese former football star Li Tie, who also served as coach of the country’s national men’s team, has been handed a sentence of 20 years on corruption charges.
Li, who also played as a midfielder for the English Premier League side Everton, is the latest to fall amid China’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign in its sports sector, and especially on football.
He was convicted of taking bribes worth over 110 million yuan (US$15.1 million) between 2015 and 2021, according to state media CCTV on Friday.
Prosecutors in China’s Hubei province said that Li accepted more than 50 million yuan (US$6.8 million) in bribes from 2019 to 2021 when he was coach of China’s national and selection team from 2019 to 2021.
The court heard that during this period Li offered favours, like picking certain players for the national team and signing deals with particular football clubs. He also offered bribes of about 3 million yuan (US$412,800) to get his coaching role with the national team in 2019.
The former head coach, who also represented China on the field at the 2002 World Cup, confessed to match-fixing and bribery in a documentary aired on state television in January.
The CCTV documentary focused on an investigation into football by the party’s corruption watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) that began in 2023 after the Chinese team failed to qualify for the Qatar World Cup.